David Willey's England pointer as Northants complete the rout of Essex

Northamptonshire's David Willey superbly catches Greg Smith of Essex on the way to a resounding victory. Photograph: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images

Alastair Cook called in at Wantage Road for a net with his England batting coach Graham Gooch, and as Essex men they can only have been appalled to witness such a limp subsidence to an innings defeat. But Gooch might have drawn some consolation from the performance of David Willey, the son of his former England team-mate Peter.

Willey had already made a mark on this match by hitting 76 in the lower-order rally that seized the initiative for Northants on Thursday, and the strapping 23-year-old took four of the last eight wickets to complete innings figures of five for 67, and eight for 110 in the match.

"I think England would like a left-arm seamer to come through, and David has been involved with them a bit through the winter," said David Ripley, the Northants head coach, pointing out that Willey had comfortably outbowled the Essex pair of Reece Topley and Tymal Mills here. "We've had three good left-armers playing in this match, and you'd have to say that David has come out on top. He can bat, he can field, he's a dynamic cricketer. He's not the finished article, as he knows himself, but he can't be that far from recognition with the Lions."

He may even be a decent outside bet to face New Zealand in the first match of their tour which starts at Derby in a fortnight.

Willey produced the individual highlight of a consistently entertaining match by stooping in his follow-through to pluck Greg Smith's straight drive off his bootlaces for a genuinely stunning return catch. "Not many fast bowlers could take a caught and bowled like that – maybe Jimmy Anderson," Ripley added.

Rob Quiney, the left-handed Australian batsman who played a couple of winter Tests, fell cutting loosely at a wide one, but Willey's other two wickets were classic left-armer's dismissals. Jamie Foster edged to first slip on-driving at a ball angled across, then Willey came around the wicket to Ravi Bopara and produced a cracker which lifted and left him off the pitch.

Bopara, who had shown skill and application to make 41 from 87 balls in grey and cold conditions, did well to edge it. Mark Pettini had no such excuse for fencing at Andrew Hall, although he was also the victim of a spectacular catch, this time by the veteran David Sales at second slip.

The failure to make Northants bat again denied Essex the chance to improve their sluggish first-innings over rate, leaving them resigned to losing two of the three bowling points they had gained. At least Cook will be available for their next two games against Hampshire and Lancashire, and they will also be keen to have Owais Shah and Ryan ten Doeschate back from the Indian Premier League.

But this was a shocking performance, and their head coach Paul Grayson was so annoyed that he left it to the players to explain it themselves.

Middlesex surged to the top of Division One with a nine-wicket victory against Derbyshire at Lord's set up by a formidable bowling performance in which Toby Roland-Jones took a hat-trick.

Derbyshire had done well to claim a narrow first-innings lead, taking the last four Middlesex wickets for 35. But they were then reduced to 26 for six, with Tim Murtagh claiming five for 12 from as many overs, and Steven Finn chipped in with a couple before Roland-Jones dismissed Tony Palladino, Tim Groenewald and Mark Turner with consecutive balls.

Roland-Jones, a lanky 25-year-old who could easily join Willey in the Lions attack against New Zealand next month, ended with figures of 6-4-4-3, and has taken 12 wickets in consecutive County Championship victories against Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire at an average of just over 15.